Geon

You might immediately think of Pac-Man when you look at Geon, but the feel of it is distinctly less ‘gamey’ than the classic pellet muncher. In fact, it feels a lot like a sports title boiled down to the most rudimentary elements and given a blocky, pixellated sheen. The only real complaint we have at this stage is more to do with this genre of puzzler and its penchant for making things look so stark and futuristic.

The visuals are firmly planted in the Wipeout camp, with basic rounded fonts and stylised avatars dotted around the place with abandon. The vibrant colours and semi-transparent boards, funky effects and groovy backgrounds only really serve to take away from what it essentially a genuinely innovative multiplayer puzzler. That’s unlikely to change in the run-up to release on the Wii, but it’s something we’re willing to overlook if the new additions to our version are sizable enough.
    New to this iteration is an excellent sounding four-player mode. This will no doubt be the real draw for the Wii. There’s a real sense of ebb and flow with the concept, and with four players you can bet that it will only be more pronounced. There’s been a degree of streamlining done to the time attack mode, which means it now focuses on pure speed, with no obstacles or opponents to slow you down. This fits much better as a separate mode, as it’s an entirely different prospect to the multiplayer or single-player story modes. Then, of course, there are all the new grids and avatars which should make the Wii iteration a more complete title. We doubt all this will be enough to tempt any out there with the original, but any new Wii-exclusive content is welcome as far as we’re concerned.

For a game which simply involves pellet munching and racing to an opponent’s scoring zone without getting bashed or halted somewhere along the way, Geon is a very interesting title. We’ll have to see how we feel about the basic nature of the aesthetics on release, but we’re loving the concept at the moment.